She is as good as gold for CROP Walk

September 22, 2006|BILL MOOR Tribune Columnist

Goldie Barber of Walkerton walks with a limp -- and a purpose. The 74-year-old widow will be in the CROP Walk Sunday starting in South Bend's Howard Park after raising close to $1,000 to fight worldwide hunger. "I know the good Lord wants me to help others," she says. Goldie probably could use some help herself. She lives on a fixed income with her three cats in a modest Walkerton home that isn't even equipped with a telephone. She lost two of her five children in car accidents and the other three live in other states. She has leg problems and she sometimes struggles to breathe. She often uses a walker to get around. Yet several months before the CROP Walk, Goldie journeys around town to collect pledges from neighbors, from business owners, from her caretakers and from so many others who know the goodness of her heart. "I think the CROP Walk may be the best day of the year for her," says Jennifer Klinedinst, who worships with Goldie at Church of the Brethren in North Liberty. And for the last 18 years, Jennifer has accompanied Goldie on the CROP Walk. "For most of those years, we have always taken part in the longer (3 1/2-mile) walk," Jennifer says. "But with Goldie's health problems, we'll do the shorter ( 1/2-mile) walk." They may even have to stop a few moments during Sunday's outing if Goldie gets one of her wheezing attacks. "She has told me that if she happens to die doing the CROP walk, that would be OK with her," Jennifer adds. That's how much it means to her -- helping the hungry and the homeless of the world. This Sunday might be even better than Christmas for Goldie. She raises her money for worthy causes and then joins hundreds of other well-wishing walkers, many who now know her by name. Good old Goldie whose hair has now turned gray. Over the last 24 years, she has raised several thousand dollars for the CROP Walk, which is sponsored locally by the United Religious Community of St. Joseph County. Her church friends, meanwhile, look out for her. Jennifer usually invites Goldie for dinner after the Sunday service and then drives her home. Others take her to appointments and other activities. Still others just drop by to see how she is. "They look out for me," Goldie says. "They are like family -- they are my family." And every Sunday, Goldie makes sure to greet everyone in the congregation before getting the pastor his glass of water. "We have all learned lessons of kindness from Goldie," Jennifer says. "We have our official greeters at each door and then we have Goldie." When she could walk better, Goldie used to follow the neighborhood kids home from school to make sure nobody bullied them and that they arrived safely. "That's just the way she is," Jennifer adds. In her younger years, Goldie worked in the farm fields around Walkerton and did yardwork and tended gardens for people. Now she helps others as best she can -- especially with her participation in the CROP Walk, "I know I'm going to miss it when I get too old to walk in it anymore," Goldie says. Not as much as its organizers will miss her. She has been their very own Golden -- or Goldie -- Girl. Bill Moor's column appears on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Contact him at bmoor@sbtinfo.com, or write him at the South Bend Tribune, 225 W. Colfax Ave., South Bend, IN 46626; (574) 235-6072.